NSW Country Championships: Ky Garratt hammers a world junior qualifier

18 January 2026

NSW Country Championships: Ky Garratt hammers a world junior qualifier

Throwers have led the way at the three-day 81st NSW Country Championships at Dubbo. One performance which particularly stood out was Cowra’s Ky Garratt in the under-20 hammer throw, launching his pathway to the international stage.

Ky Garratt – U20 Hammer Throw
Last April Ky Garratt placed second in the hammer throw at the Australian under-20 championships with a then PB of 67.01m. It set him up to embark on his 2025/26 campaign where the World U20 Championships are the carrot at the end of the season.
He started his summer with a best of 67.64m at the NSW All Schools, then just nudged that PB to 67.66m in Canberra in December. 

While his early performances were looking promising, his training was going even better. 
“Over the course of the summer my gym weights and training had gradually been picking up leading to progressive and consistent small personal bests. This showed signs of a big jump in the near future leading to my success in Dubbo,” Garratt said.

Coach Ernie Shankelton also noted.
“Ky was progressing in training, not in distance but consistency, indicating improvement was due.”

The World U20 Championships standard of 68.00m was definitely within reach. Then on Friday night in Dubbo, Garratt shattered that standard, twice. After opening with a distance of 66.74m, he launched the 6kg implement to 69.64m, then on his third effort he was out to 71.75m. In one competition he had raised his PB by 4.09m, destroyed his own championship record (64..57m), smashed the NSW U20 record (69.08m), and became the first Australian to achieve a qualifying mark for the 2026 World U20 Championships (standard was 68.00m).  

Garrett explained the environment at Dubbo was key:
“The relaxed and regional nature of this competition surrounded by fellow rural athletes allowed me to find my rhythm during the comp but more importantly before the competition. This is arguably the best I have ever felt prior to a competition in my career so far.”

After graduating from high school last year and joining the workforce ahead of further study in 2026, coach Shankelton had noticed maturity.

Garratt also knew he was making progress in his approach to competition.
“I had actually put a lot of pressure on myself to try and achieve the world junior qualifier and seeing the other Aussies so close this drove me even further,” he said.
“In the previous competitions I think I was too worked up about the pressure of meeting the qualification standard where the more relaxed nature of this competition allowed me to reach that mark. Being the first to reach this makes me feel proud that the work I have put in through the off season has paid off and will hopefully create a healthy competition environment between the other athletes chasing the qualifier.”

The equation now for Garratt to make the Australian team for the World U20 Championships in Eugene in America in July, is via the Australian Championships in Sydney in April. A maximum of two athletes can be selected, and they need to have met the standard. Mostly the top-2 placed athletes at the trials are selected. Waiting in the wings to qualify are Connor Hopgood (Qld) who defeated Garratt in April, and Tasmanian Xavier Leauma.  

Garratt trains four to five times a week in the circle. “Three of those being under the guidance of Ernie, however the remaining are by myself which allows responsibility and accountability to fall back on me.” He also trains in the gym and notes another important part of his training:
“Recovery sessions are a major part of elite sport and ensuring your body is healing through sleep and muscles are flexible - helping to reduce injury and promote higher quality throwing.”

While Garratt lives in Cowra, coach Shankelton lives of a small 20-acre cattle stud at Billimari. With no high-level facilities in Cowra, Garratt and Shankelton’s entire training squad trave; to a purposed developed training area at Canowindra. They grateful developed an international standard throwing facility.
“Just recently the athletics field in Canowindra received a grant to install a throwing cage similar to those at state and national meets allowing our group (central west throwers) to train in competition like scenarios regularly which is very rare for athletes like myself in such a rural location,” Garratt noted.

Garratt has received a few scholarship offers to attend college in American and he will take up an offer in August 2026. He will follow in the footsteps of his mother Helen, who went to college in America on a tennis scholarship. She now coaches tennis in Cowra.

Coach Ernie Shankelton
In 2001 Ernie Shankelton coached Bronwyn Eagles to a hammer throw bronze medal at the World Championships in Canada. Shankelton, a registered nurse and racing car enthusiast, purchased some land in Billimari, located between Cowra and Canowindra. Over the next few years he developed the land, building a kit home during long weekend visits there from his job in Sydney. He and his wife permanently relocated there in 2012. It was an ideal location as they had many family members in the area. Early after his arrival, while on a school visit in Bathurst, he met Helen Garratt, mother of Ky, and it was not long before Shankelton was coaching athletes. Ky’s older sister, Tayla, was a talented athlete and in 2014 set a Country Championships record in the U17 hammer throw (This record was broken this year after 12 years). 

Over the more than a decade coaching in the central west of NSW, Shankelton has made an incredible impact on dozens of athletes. This weekend in Dubbo, in the open women’s hammer his athletes went 1-2-3-4 and in the men’s they dominated the hammer throws - breaking their training mate’s championship best. His 14 athletes won nine gold medals, three silver, seven bronze, set four championships records and of course Garrett’s NSW record. Shankelton’ s work across regional NSW has also included mentoring many coaches.

One wonders just what career direction Ky Garratt would have taken if Ernie Shankelton had not moved to the area and they met? 
Ky Garrett reflected on this: “Without the guidance and mentorship from Ernie I don’t believe myself or any other athlete within the central west throwers would be where we are today. Personally, I believe I may have followed the tennis or hockey pathway but with Ernie living in such a close proximity it allowed me to pursue this discipline and excel and hopefully continue to grow into this sport.”

Ernie Shankelton Squad
Pre-championships featured athlete, McKayla Grobler (Mudgee), who was the only athlete to break an Australian record at the Australian All Schools last month in Melbourne, was in terrific form, despite just returning from a family holiday in New Zealand. She revealed her plans this season that, despite only aged just 15, she is chasing World U20 Championships selection. She by passed her own age to throw the heavier 4kg shot in the under-20 event. Requiring the standard of 14.50m, she nailed a 32cm PB distance of 13.94m on her one valid throw. She also broke the meet record of 13.81m.

In the U18/17s Hammer Throw (5kg), Cooper Dabin (Young) smashed Ky Garratt’s record by five metres with a throw of 66.73m – a three metre PB.

In the open women Hammer throw, the squad claimed the top-4 places: Molly Goetz (Temora) 49.98m, Kara Baker (ACT) 49.59m, Emily Thomas (Temora) 48.16m and Ashleigh McInerney (Young) 38.71m. This was a thrilling competition. After the three-round break, Baker, led from Thomas and Goetz. But with her final throw Goetz, took the title by just 39cm. Current NSW Open champion, is returning from an injury sustained since she placed third representing Australia at the Pacific Mini-Games in Palau.

Coach Shankelton has big wraps on the emerging talent Alex Rice (Temora). He won the U17/16s Hammer Throw with a distance of 44.97m.

Savannah Auvva (Bathurst) was unstoppable winning three gold from three starts. She claimed the 14s Shot (12.41m), Discus (35.82m) and Hammer (42.30m). Her sister Scarlett Suvva won the 11s shot with a distance of 10.67m – a meet record.

As his junior/age records keep getting broken by his training partners, Damian Wells (Temora), 22, continues to pursuit the open Hammer throw meet record of 62.15m. Well’s PB of 62.13m is very close to the record. On Friday in Dubbo he nailed his best throw yet at the championships with a distance of 60.27m.

Some other Highlights from the weekend

• Newcastle’s Jemma Pollard has opened her season in stunning form. The two-time global medalist clocked 53.05 to win the 400m in Dubbo. It was the four fastest time of her career, only bettered by a few Track Classic and ACT Championship races. However, she was unable to break the very good meet record of 52.70 set by another Newcastle athlete, Pirrenee Steinert. But one to watch is Pollard’s training partner, Alice Hill just 16, who clocked 54.32, smashing her PB of 55.17 set last month when winning a silver medal in the Australian All Schools U17 400m.
  Pollard wasn’t finished racing, when on Sunday in the 200m. She was meeting the 100m winner (in 11.77), Bronte Carroll (Mingara) on middle ground over 200m. In a classic race, Pollard clocked 23.71 just holding off former NSW open 200m champion Carroll with 23.76. They had run into a 1.5m/s headwind. Alice Hill (16) was also impressive in third clocking 24.48. 
• Last year seems to have been a turning point in the career of Ashlyn Blackstock, now 21. In 2025, the talented junior recorded her four best discus throws of her career and also her best shot put. At the NSW Country Championships this year she equalled her new shot PB, then added 60cm to her discus PB, hitting 53.57m, to break the meet record of 51.43m. In the under-20s Chelsy Wayne broke her own meet record with a throw of 50.58m.
• Sina Wildraut (Inverell) smashed her shot PB of 13.56m, with all three valid throws, topping out at 14.34m with a win in the open. She had top competition from Eastlakes star Ashlyn Blackstock with 13.97.
• Armidale’s Mack Oxley destroyed the 14s 3000m record by 40 seconds, clocking 9:15.32.
• Liam Meale (Gosford) broke a quality record in the 13s 1500m walk held by Callum Martin. Meale clocked 7:27.53 to slice nine seconds from the record.
• In the 13s Discus Isaac Saban (Bathurst) broke a 41-year-old record (set in 1985), recording a distance 44.45m. He broke the old mark of 43.12m, set by Leeton’s Craig Nettelbeck, who in the 90s would play 78 AFL Games for the Sydney Swans, Freemantle and Melbourne. 
• Wollongong’s Sidney Bartle smashed the 12-year-old 15s Hammer throw record with a distance of 47.09m. She now has the 13s, 14s and 15s records. 
• It is rare to see Masters athletes improving their own records as they age, but Shoalhaven Heads athlete Kenneth Stubbs did so, raising his 80s + Hammer Throw record from 26.90m to 29.47m.
• Local fans were thrilled by the double record setting wins by Dubbo’s Chloe McCarthy. Competing in the 9s 100m and 200m, McCarthy set winning times of 15.53 and 32.31 to take down the meet records. She also won a silver medal in the long jump. Also for the hosts, Kobe Kilby (Dubbo) broke the 12s javelin throw by nearly two metres with a distance of 33.32m. 
• Parkes talent, Vashti Williams added over two metres to the 15s javelin record with her first round effort of 38.57m. She twice surpassed the old record.  
• Australian championships 400m bronze medallist, Charlotte James (Eastlakes) won the 14s 200m/400m double with times of 26.56 and 59.60 respectively.
• Temora’s Grace Krause showed some very promising form ahead of a push for selection in the World U20 Championships team. The Commonwealth Youth Games medallist, was just short of her PBs in winning an U20s treble. She clocked 12.06 and 24.62 in the sprints and leapt 6.13m in the long jump. This season we will see her chasing the following world junior standards, all achievable – 100m 11.78, 200m 24.35, long jump 6.22m and triple jump 13.00m.
• Orange’s Lucy Jurd, claimed a middle-distance double in the 16s, clocking times of 2:19.29 (800m) and 4:54.10 (1500m).
• Jenice Hicks (Macquarie Hunter) coasted through the heats, ahead of two impressive wins in the 15s sprint finals. She clocked times of 12.85 (100m) and 26.29 (200m).  
• Competing seven times during the three days, Mingara’s Emma Shiels won four diverse events in the 13s age - the 400m (59.77), 800m (2:22.44), Discus (29.83m) and Javelin (17.59m).
• Gosford’s George Wells, a Commonwealth Youth Games Discus gold medallist, won two open titles with terrific distances of 47.01m (Discus) and 14.21m (Shot).
• There was an impressive PB by 21-year-old rising star Bianca Packer (Springwood). Competing in the open Javelin she twice raised her PB, which had stood since 2023, throwing 45.65, then 45.67m.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Ky Garratt (image course of Fred Etter)